Movie studios want new "anti-piracy" model from Apple
Amid growing concerns over digital piracy, major motion picture studios are pressuring Apple Computer to develop a new distribution model for digital films before they agree to make their flicks available on the company's iTunes download service.
The studios -- Universal, 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Warner Bros -- are all in talks with the iPod maker, according to the Financial Times, but are demanding that company limit the number of devices that can use a film once it's purchased and downloaded from iTunes.
"The studios want to avoid the experience of the music industry, which has yet to recover from years of illegal digital piracy," the report states. It quotes one studio executive involved in the talks as saying Apple must introduce a "new model" for feature film content delivery.
With the average cost of a blockbuster film approaching $100m, movie studios have more to lose than music companies, the exec said. "We’re very willing to do a deal but we’re keen to get some concessions from Apple that will account for the differences between the value of music and television content and feature film content."
Thus far, Apple has signed on just one major studio in Walt Disney Co., which joined iTunes in September and has since sold over 500,000 flicks through the service -- a sell-through rate of approximately 62,500 movies a week or 9,000 each day.
Of the four motion picture heavyweights yet to ink a deal with Apple, Fox is rumored to be one of the closest to reaching an agreement to join iTunes. Earlier this month, CNN quoted the president of the studios parent company, News Corp., as saying the two parties were engaged in 'positive talks,' but that several details still needed to be worked out.
Lions Gate Entertainment, an independent, is also rumored to be closing in on a deal to distribute its films through iTunes.
The studios -- Universal, 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Warner Bros -- are all in talks with the iPod maker, according to the Financial Times, but are demanding that company limit the number of devices that can use a film once it's purchased and downloaded from iTunes.
"The studios want to avoid the experience of the music industry, which has yet to recover from years of illegal digital piracy," the report states. It quotes one studio executive involved in the talks as saying Apple must introduce a "new model" for feature film content delivery.
With the average cost of a blockbuster film approaching $100m, movie studios have more to lose than music companies, the exec said. "We’re very willing to do a deal but we’re keen to get some concessions from Apple that will account for the differences between the value of music and television content and feature film content."
Thus far, Apple has signed on just one major studio in Walt Disney Co., which joined iTunes in September and has since sold over 500,000 flicks through the service -- a sell-through rate of approximately 62,500 movies a week or 9,000 each day.
Of the four motion picture heavyweights yet to ink a deal with Apple, Fox is rumored to be one of the closest to reaching an agreement to join iTunes. Earlier this month, CNN quoted the president of the studios parent company, News Corp., as saying the two parties were engaged in 'positive talks,' but that several details still needed to be worked out.
Lions Gate Entertainment, an independent, is also rumored to be closing in on a deal to distribute its films through iTunes.
Comments
Piracy is going to happen if there's a will no matter how much DRM. Greedy b-stardz!
WFT?!? Did they even look at Apple's DRM?!?
As fas as I know Apple's (music) DRM scheme already takes care of this when buying songs from the iTunes Store. Unless you want to burn your own DVDs in order to re-rip them into some other format (which, by the way, takes ages...) for your friends, their claim is pretty worthless IMHO.
P.S. I'm sure that copy protection also applies to movies bought from iTunes - which all we people outside the US still can't... Grmpf...
Piracy is a product of the studio's bullshit. Let them deal with it. It's amazing how a company can put out a product and completely distrust their customers.
It;s just a matter of time until they are in exactly the same boat as the music industry was- The studios can't stop piracy with penalties and laws- only by making your content attractive to purchase. If no one wants to purchase their content, then improve your fukn product.
"The studios want to avoid the experience of the music industry, which has yet to recover from years of illegal digital piracy,"
Back in the beginning days of music piracy that's all that was really pirated, music. Internet connections were too slow for movies, yet alone for high quality movies. Plus, there weren't any DRM/iTunes solutions back then. The landscape has changed and it's obvious the studios haven't fully grapsed this yet.
How can they be so stupid?
what part is the actor's salaries. do they think i want to pay that much for brad pitt or someone else to be in a movie,??
If someone does that today from an AAC/iTunes song, it is AAC and has to be recoded to MP3 and then all that work simply impacted a single song. For movies, they will have a pristine H.264 movie ready for viewing. No re-coding (which means less work and no loss in quality).
Their fear is justified; the reality is that I don't think that there is a technical solution that blocks all risk.
SO, the studios need to feel that they are getting something for the risk they are taking. I think Steve will be able to sell them on this, once iTV is here and people are digging it.
Sometimes negotiations take time simply because people have to get used to a new idea and I think steve is pushing the studios along as fast as he can.
I am going to guess that the studios are worried that someone will figure out how to crack Apple's encryption and release their high-quality movies onto the P2P networks.
If someone does that today from an AAC/iTunes song, it is AAC and has to be recoded to MP3 and then all that work simply impacted a single song. For movies, they will have a pristine H.264 movie ready for viewing. No re-coding (which means less work and no loss in quality).
Their fear is justified; the reality is that I don't think that there is a technical solution that blocks all risk.
Of course, everyone already knows it's nearly impossible for uncrackable encryption, it's just a matter of how far Jobs is willing to be pushed to accommodate the studios. Remember, kids... the real plan is to cut out the middle-men entirely. No more distributors.
They would much prefer that you download it , watch it, and it disappears from your computer. So for example. If you watch "StarWars" 10 times during your lifetime, you make 10 smaller payments for a rental, instead of one larger payment for life. It keeps the file from hanging around on your computer and tempting you to share it with your friends.
Were they not the driving force behind the failed attempt at dvd's that would erase themselves after viewing?
I absolutely hate those greedy basterds.
Just like DVDs!
WFT?!? Did they even look at Apple's DRM?!?
As fas as I know Apple's (music) DRM scheme already takes care of this when buying songs from the iTunes Store. Unless you want to burn your own DVDs in order to re-rip them into some other format (which, by the way, takes ages...) for your friends, their claim is pretty worthless IMHO.
P.S. I'm sure that copy protection also applies to movies bought from iTunes - which all we people outside the US still can't... Grmpf...
here here---make it easier to own. and make the theater experience better. sometimes i will go to the movies (less so now its $7.50 and 4.50 popcorn) i think they are killing the golden goose (we are tired of paying big $$$$ for crap. hollywood needs a shrink and some self analyis.
so long as they don't piracy will only grow and grow and grow. guess what language SJ will use for these guys???
another problem, the studios also know that people view movies different than music. i can play ted nuggent and led zep for years, because they are 4-6min mood makers, but movies hmmmmm different. the studios know they have to milk us within 3 months for as much as possible before "it's last years has been". they also hope in that magic 3 months that the 25 million dollar star dosen't piss off all his audience ( how does scientology help with this one tommy boy)
They have really no way to know if I'm putting my own dvds and hopefully hd-dvds one day on a video ipod, I'd rather spend my own effort to do what I want then pay twice for something like all the studios want.
No download service should win, itunes should just have every tv show, but I can't put up with the bullcrap the studios want for movies. Especially because in a number of years this junk is supposed to replace physical disks, no way I would rather a crackable disk then some annoying ass drm.
I agree with the studios. I think iTunes movie downloads should be 100% piracy-proof.
Just like DVDs!
DVDs are extremely easier to use as sources of piracy than iTunes videos are.
What needs to happen is for the DRM to become less restrictive while still providing the inability to share easially. This is a huge task which is why its not happened yet.
The problem with movie pirating is that the actors and executives dont suffer its the support crew that is affected.
Now that Steve is the majority stockholder at Disneypixar, he should insist on the correct course of action and enable downloaded content to be burned to a DVD! He needs to be the one leading the charge. Once a major studio gives the OK to do that, the others will fall in line.
That would be nice, but I don't see that happening.
If you could burn it on a DVD it would take away from the sales of the iTV.
I will continue to rip my DVDs because I'll get higher quality video. And it will be in an un-DRMed file, easy for piracy. I won't buy from iTunes because of the low quality and high price.
The studios -- Universal, 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Warner Bros -- are all in talks with the iPod maker, according to the Financial Times, but are demanding that company limit the number of devices that can use a film once it's purchased and downloaded from iTunes.
"...limit the number of devices..."
I assume they already know about the whole 5 computers limitation.
They're probably concerned about the fact that content can be synchronized with an unlimited number of independent playback devices (iPods).
To me this shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how iPods fit into Apple's DRM scheme...
If I try to send my movie over to a friend's iPod, I must either merge his library with my own (requiring his iTunes password, and making my computer take up one of my friend's "5 computer limit") or else purge the iPod of all its existing content first.
When my friend gets his iPod back home, and he decides to synchronize with his own media collection again, he must either merge the content I provided with his own library (requiring my iTunes password, and taking up one of my "5 computer limit"), or else purge any of my content that happens to be on the iPod.
When you look at it in that context, I really don't think it counts as a vehicle for piracy...
"Okay," you hypothetically say, "what about someone who bypasses the iPod's synchronization limitations and manage to copy the content to their computer without transferring licenses?"
Well, in that case, the file he ends up with is worthless because iTunes won't have the license required to play it back.
"But what if that person proceeds to crack the DRM so that he can play it back and make as many copies as he wants?"
Then you've bypassed the question of using the iPod as a vehicle for piracy entirely, haven't you? The determined pirate could have simply transferred the file via any number of P2P file sharing services, or even using a Data DVD.
So it seems clear that the studios really do what to make it so that the movies, once obtained through iTunes and synchronized with whatever device will be doing the playback, cease to exist as independent files on whatever PC (or Mac) happened to have been used as the vehicle for the transfer.
What if you buy a new iPod, or your existing iPod needs to go through a factory reset? I guess you'll have to buy the movie again....
What if you intend to watch the movie you purchased on your PC (or Mac)? I guess you're just out of luck...
And those responses are simply unacceptable to this consumer.